My Nephew Harry 2: The Hogwarts Years
by Lucillia
Summary: After spending a few years in the care of his Aunt Marge, it is now time for a Harry to go to Hogwarts.
1. The Letter

Harry looked down at the letter he'd just received. He'd been expecting it for years, ever since he'd learned that Hogwarts existed, but he didn't know how he felt about it and all it represented. To go to Hogwarts, he would have to leave his Aunt Marge behind for most of the year for the next seven years.

Dudley had spent several months at Hogwarts, and had said that the place was horrible. But, then again, Dudley wasn't the most reliable source of any sort of information. Especially information about something like Hogwarts.

Three years earlier, after Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had gotten into a really bad car accident and had to go to the hospital for several weeks, he and Dudley had been left in the care of Aunt Marge. Back then, he hadn't liked Aunt Marge because of how things had gone when she visited the home he used to live in with his aunt and uncle, and she hadn't liked him because of all the lies his aunt had told her about him.

Dudley had done his best to get him in trouble with Aunt Marge, and for the first week, she had bought it. One day though, Aunt Marge started calling Dudley on his crap and punishing him, which the fat blond lump most definitely didn't like. That day had been the day Harry's world had gotten flipped on its ear.

A while later, Dudley, who had been an even bigger brat than usual, had tried to get back at Aunt Marge by kicking one of her puppies. He had moved to protect the puppy, and Dudley had kicked him instead. Instead of yelling at him for this like his aunt and uncle would have done, Aunt Marge had called for the police and an ambulance. Dudley was arrested, and he was taken to the hospital.

At the hospital, the way his aunt and uncle had been treating him had been revealed, and he was told that he would never have to live with them again. Unfortunately, he still had to live with Dudley at the very least because of some sort of special blood protection that his mother had left behind that living with his maternal relatives recharged. After leaving the hospital, he had briefly been taken from Aunt Marge, but later returned and told he could stay until he grew up.

The one dark spot in his life with Marge was Dudley. Several months into his stay with Aunt Marge, Dudley had been moved in because he absolutely had to be there to renew the protection that was keeping him safe from the bad "wizards" who used to follow the Dark Lord Voldemort. Dudley had picked up few if any manners while he was away at Hogwarts, and his behavior would have almost completely gone downhill after his return if it weren't for the fact that Severus who he would soon have to start calling Professor Snape constantly visited.

At his and Dudley's new Primary school, Dudley wasn't the king of the playground like he had been back in Surrey, and in fact had taken his old position at the bottom of the school's social standing, as he had picked up a reputation for being a bullying troublemaker, and didn't have any of his old friends from Surrey to back him up. Dudley of course blamed him for this and more, and did his best to make his life a living hell when nobody was looking. Fortunately, that wasn't all that often, since he made it a point to keep as close to Remus and Aunt Marge as possible when he was home.

Today however, he'd received the letter that told him he would have to leave home and all of the friends he had made over the years soon. Remus, Severus, and the Letter all said that he was a wizard. Aunt Marge said that that whole wizard thing was Hogwash, and that believing what he could do was magic was just lazy thinking.

He himself was inclined to believe Aunt Marge. She hadn't steered him wrong so far.


	2. A Race Through the Alley

Harry smiled as he once again walked through Diagon Alley. Instead of a short shopping trip to pick up one or two items for the house like the ones he usually took when he came here with Remus, he was to get all of the fairy-tale trappings that he needed for his new school, which he still felt somewhat apprehensive about, though the thought of learning how to properly use his abilities intrigued him. He knew what Aunt Marge thought of the wands and things that were required for his future education in using his Psychokinetic abilities just as his school uniform was. He'd seen his aunt's frustration after trying to discuss "magic" with Remus and Professor Snape.

No matter how many times she insisted that there was a scientific explanation for what the so-called wizards and witches could do, Severus and Remus would just insist that it was magic and that there was no scientific explanation for it. Severus would look smug and, Remus would smile at her the way one does a small child that they're humoring. Meanwhile, Aunt Marge had taken to raiding the library for books on everything from Quantum Physics to String Theory in hopes of finding something that would explain the "how" behind "Magic" to her satisfaction. Outside of the professors of some universities whom his Aunt had actually written to, she had to be one of the most educated people in those fields.

Aunt Marge considered the people who had stopped at "Magic" for the explanation for what they could do to be exceedingly lazy, and believed that if they'd just tried to go beyond that explanation, they would have revolutionized science in ways that were currently unimaginable. After all, using their abilities, they had conducted genetic experiments that were leagues ahead of what conventional science could currently do, and were routinely able to change the sub-atomic structures of objects in order to change them into something else entirely amongst a million other things that would have a "muggle" scientist drooling before he or she reached for his or her notebook and started furiously taking notes.

It had been Severus whom he would have to start thinking of as Professor Snape who had brought him to the Alley today rather than Remus who was still recovering from his transformation. When it came to his personality, Professor Snape could best be described as being like an exceedingly temperamental cat. If you rubbed him the wrong way, he'd claw the hell out of you, and woe betide you if you ever ran into him again. He however, was amongst the few whom Professor Snape deigned to allow to approach him.

"Hurry up, we don't have all day!" Severus snapped when he'd started to fall behind because he'd stopped to look at a particularly bright and animated window display at one of the toy stores.

"Sorry." he said as he hurried to move back to Severus' side.

There were a number of things Severus didn't like, and having his time wasted was one of them. Severus could be mean at times, but he had shown time and time again that he was concerned for his welfare, and that he wouldn't hurt him the way Aunt Petunia had, even though his face sometimes had that same pinched expression Aunt Petunia's did at times.

"See that it doesn't happen again." Severus replied.

That was the end of the conversation as they made their way to Gringotts where he would be withdrawing funds from his vault for the first time. He'd seen Goblins before during his previous short trips to the Alley, so he didn't stare at the guards as he entered the bank. When he'd asked his aunt about them before, she had spoken of parallel evolution and the fact that more and more ancient skeletons from hominid species that preceded ours were being discovered every day, and how the Goblins were likely an off branch of the Human family tree that was descended from one of these species.

Severus had handed him the key to his vault earlier, so he had been able to present it to the teller when asked. After a rather exhilarating ride in a cart that put the roller-coaster at the amusement park that Aunt Marge had taken him to for his last birthday to shame, he was soon standing outside of what he was told was his family vault.

"Don't take too long in there, we have a schedule to keep." Severus snapped, as the Goblin opened the door to his vault, revealing heaps and heaps of Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts.

There were times when Severus could be remarkably like Aunt Petunia. But, the difference between the two of them was that Severus had actually cared about him, had never tried to harm him, and would sooner starve himself than starve him. There were times though, that he had to remind himself of this fact when the man's face took on an expression that was unsettlingly familiar.

He shoveled a number of coins into his bag as quickly as he could, and hurried out of the vault despite the fact that he would have liked to have had the chance to explore it a bit more. He had so little that belonged to his parents, and he hoped to find something here aside from money, some sort of treasure that he could definitively say had belonged to his mother or his father. He'd heard stories about the both of them from Remus and Severus, but such things were rather subjective, especially considering the fact that Remus hadn't known his mother as well as Severus had, and Severus severely disliked his father, and despite the fact that both Remus and Severus tried to hide it from him, they both disliked each-other, and both seemed to be in a subtle competition for his attention at times.

After another wild ride in the awesome cart, he and Severus were back up in the lobby, and shortly after that, they were back out into the Alley where Severus was urging him to hurry up because he wanted to get the shopping done quickly because he had a potion that was on a time limit waiting for him back home.

Knowing how tricky and easily ruined potions could be, since he'd tried one or two of the basic ones with supervision, he understood why Severus was impatient. Considering the type of potions Severus made, several weeks of work and hundreds of galleons worth of ingredients could be completely ruined if he tarried too long and thereby caused Severus to miss an all-important step. He could probably get Remus to bring him back to the Alley later for any extras, when he wasn't feeling too ill from the full moon.

Naturally, being in a hurry, they had rushed through the shops as quickly as they could, all of the shops except for the Apothecary that was. He himself had been feeling impatient by the time they had left Ollivander's Wand Shop and headed to Slug and Jiggers. Of course that could have been because he'd been forced to spend an hour waving dozens of wands for the creepy shopkeeper, until he'd found the right one. The feeling he'd had when he had touched his wand for the first time had been indescribable. There was likely a scientific reason for why it had felt that way, but then again there was a scientific reason for everything whether it was pleasant or not. The comment about where the feather in his wand came from seemed to be far more unsettling for Severus than it had been for him.

Being at Slug and Jiggers was always an interesting experience, as there was always something new to look at every time he visited. Today, rather than spotting a new and fascinating potions ingredient, the new thing he'd found was an older woman who was wearing a hat that was topped with a stuffed vulture who was leading a slightly pudgy boy who was around his age around the store.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Longbottom." Severus said, nodding politely as he greeted the older woman when they got within three feet of each-other.

"Professor Snape." the woman said coldly when she caught sight of Severus. He wasn't sure if it was a greeting or not.

The small pudgy boy nervously peered around the older woman, and seemed almost petrified when he caught sight of Severus. He relaxed a bit, and looked somewhat curious when he caught sight of him. Before the boy could speak however, the woman grabbed the boy's hand, and imperiously swept past them and out of the store with the boy trailing helplessly in her wake.

Frowning at the strange encounter, he turned and set to the task of getting the last items on his list before Severus' potion was ruined and he was blamed for it because he'd taken too long.


End file.
